SAPO – Passing the Test!

Just a quick update to tell you the cricket balls have arrived! I have to say, I am more than pleased with the results. I mailed the package from Johannesburg on November 5, 2010, and it arrived in Overland Park, KS, on November 13, maybe even the 12th. So it arrived, and in just one week! Plus I was able to track the (rather brief) South African portion of its journey online, just as promised, on the South African Postal Service (SAPO) web site:

TRACKING
LINE

TYPE

DATE

TIME

BRANCH

COMMENTS

1

In transit

2010/11/06

10:51:06

JHB INT MAIL CENTRE (HUB)

2

In transit

2010/11/05

22:11:50

WITSPOS (HUB)

3

Item accepted by branch

2010/11/05

10:21:00

DAINFERN NORTH

Arrival in Overland Park: Nov 12 or 13. Oh, and on that website I also saw that I could renew our annual PO Box subscription online.

To be fair, I should now probably conduct the experiment in reverse to see if that works equally well. As I’ve said elsewhere, I’ve heard rumors that Amazon had blacklisted South Africa at some point in time because so many packages were ‘lost.” And our neighbor looked at us in shock the other day when the discussion turned to bank statements and we revealed that we received ours in the mail. How could we be so foolish? Our bank account would be depleted within weeks, he was convinced.

*** Update: I have had less luck with later tests of the South African postal service, see here. ***